We last wrote about online-only, free-to-play ARPG Path of Exile in April and it was already looking like an interesting proposition. It’s in closed beta now and there’s a terribly agonising countdown clock on the website to inform the world of when another lucky player will be allowed in. It’s like a cruel competition that I never win. Has anyone had any luck and if so can you bring back any reports from the entirely lootable dark and gritty world (that’s the official description) in which you have found yourself? There’s several feature length films worth of beta footage after the jump as well as a trailer for the Templar class.

It looks a lot like Diablo the first in 3D. Unlike Blizzard’s new offering and Torchlight, wherein puppies and unicorns are the order of the day, Path of Exile is set in the kind of world where a rainbow would probably be covered in spikes and blood. And it would growl at you and actually be an angry yet multihued demon-faced skybastard, not a rainbow at all.

Despite having a PVP element, the developers have repeatedly stated that though free-to-play this will not be a pay-to-win game. Instead, it’s a pay-to-be-pretty game, with a raft of aesthetic options available for a bit of coin. This is particularly impressive given the apparent depth and customisation offered through the skill tree. It would have been easy to lock off pathways and combinations behind a wall penetrated only by a credit card, but that’s not the case. The whole twisted skill tree, which is more web than tree, is available to everyone. There’s a picture of it here. I don’t know whether to be impressed or intimidated. Both, most likely. Intimipressed. Or terrifroused.

Although there is a class system, with six to pick from, every character can unlock the skills of his or her choosing. Different classes are more suited to certain paths (of exile) but they’re not locked down. The level cap is currently set at 100, which sounds like a lot. Obviously, it’s not necessarily a lot. It’s an arbitrary number and if it takes two minutes to earn a level, 100 is suddenly an exceedingly rubbishy arbitrary number. But fear not. Grinding Gear claim that it’d be possible to improve a single character “for years on end”.

If you sign up for the beta now, you could still get in before it opens up to everyone in the near future. The people picked for the closed beta are being randomly selected from all those who signed up. No first come first served here.

Oh, and here’s that beta footage. I’m not going to pretend I’ve watched it all so hopefully it doesn’t contradict everything I’ve written.

yes! with the sadness that is diablo III… i was kinda depressed… excited for torchlight II, but still… then when I saw this, I squeeed for joy, I can’t wait for either a beta key or to get it released!

and all those folks who are saying “yeah D3 has always online, this always online is way better!”:
A) I don’t have to pay up front for it.
B) Diablo was mostly multiplayer for me after I got an internet connection, but diablo II i played mostly local lan or offline.
C) It is not the diablo I loved, its not even made by the same people, just the brand name cashing in on the franchise. This is new IP, this is something different and a bettering (i think) of the genra. And hey, there is something nearly sexual about those little pearls of materia from FF7, i was a teen when i spent 3 months on that game… this game brings back that same feeling of joy.

I shy away from F2P games because I always assume they will be more or less unplayable unless you turn into a cash cow. So basically I never even give them a chance because I assume some devious mechanic will kick in when I am 20 hours in.

My concern isn’t completely without basis in reality. Many of these games start out with the mantra that only cosmetics will be charged for and then they realize sooner rather than later that they can’t support the game that way and start charging for gameplay advantages.

And with all these sales on games I’ll never run out of stuff to play as it is without having to wade into the F2P swamp and gambling on them being able to support themselves with hats.

I’ve been in beta for roughly a month and they’re currently working on quite a bit though I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be posting too much info about it outside of the beta forums. I can tell you however that most of the gameplay videos you’ve seen are most likely a bit out-dated as they’ve completely revamped the UI a few weeks ago (it looks significantly better now).

They’re currently giving out random keys to people who are in beta so I’ll be sure to hook RPS up with a key if I ever get one.

Edit: It’s especially annoying how they tell you the next person to be given access. It’s like it’s saying “the last person to be granted beta access wasn’t you, and in 10 minutes it still won’t be you!”

I’m in this since day one of closed beta and so far it’s everything I’d like D3 to be. There’s no auction house, I can (and have) mess up characters and it doesn’t look like Deathspank. There are a few kinks and a few acts left to work out, but I’m really looking forward to the finished product.

I’m not intimidated by the skill tree, most skills are duplicated all over it so instead of leveling More Mana 1/10 for the first ten levels you go More Mana-> Faster Casting-> More Mana-> Extra Perk-> More Mana following the branch you want until that final killer passive.

Loving the “active skills on gems, modifiers to active in other gems and level up by use” system.

Grinding Gear is one of the few kiwi game makers. I very much doubt they have any sort of marketing budget and as such articles like this must be immensely helpful for them. I hope they make a but-load of money! :)

I’m glad to see Lumin is getting some attention – Lumin is the guy playing in the video – he also has nice news videos coming out weekly about the Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft scene, not to mention the fact that he’s an all-around cool guy.

Long time reader but a first time poster :D
This is looking to be a mighty fine game in the works, don’t know if anyone’s played FFX but the skill system looked similar to the sphere grid system which I know I’ll lose countless hours just staring at :P.

Well, shit, Blizzard, now absolutely no one who has any problem with Diablo 3, up to and including it costing money, has any reason to buy your game! That puts you in an unfortunate position and me in an excellent one.

The major complaints against D3 are that it’s online-only, and the cash shop. This is another online-only ARPG… with a cash shop.

People may enjoy this game on its own merits, but I doubt they’ll be looking at it as a Diablo 3 alternative for any reason other than the F2P angle, which we know is pretty dicey, and they’ll have a lot to prove. Say what you want about Blizzard, but everyone is pretty confident they’ll deliver a polished game.

There are far better ARPGs coming down the pipe to choose over D3 based on their comparative lack of alienating features, by proven developers.

ForceSC2strategy is a great commentator on youtube who has done like 10 parts of beta footage of this game. If someone’s interested, he has also plenty of videos about D3 and obviously SC2. And some other games too.

They say that the Clvl cap is 100, but there are some Clvl 51+ characters around. This is impressive when you consider that there are only two acts in the Beta, and they are not complete yet.
Also, there is another character class coming soon. This is not a “Blizzard” soon, this has a real timeline!!